Is Broadband Regulation Dead?

I ask this question after Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] recently withdrew her name from consideration as a Federal Communication Commissioner. But the objections to Sohn were all the kinds of smokescreens that politicians use to not admit the real reason they opposed the nomination; because she is in favor of regulating broadband and the public airwaves. The big broadband providers and the large broadcasting companies (some companies which are both) have been lobbying hard against the Sohn nomination since it was first announced. But I think the failure to approve Sohn breaks the historical convention that lets the political party in power decide who to add as regulators. I predict this will not end with this failed nomination. The primary reason for this is that votes for an FCC Commissioner are no longer purely along party lines. The large ISPs and broadcasters make huge contributions to Senators for the very purpose of influencing this kind of issue. I think we’re now seeing the textbook example of "regulatory capture," an economic principle that describes a situation where regulatory agencies are dominated by the industries they are supposed to be regulating. The FCC is a textbook example of a captured regulator.